Mob lynches three in Bolivia

Two police officers and a civilian, who were mistaken for criminals, are killed by a mob in rural areas of the central Bolivian province of Cochabamba.

Two police officers, mistaken for criminals, and a civilian who came to their rescue have been killed by a mob in a rural area of the central Bolivian province of Cochabamba, EFE new agency reported on Wednesday.

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A preliminary police report said the two officers, both members of the auto-theft squad in Cochabamba, were conducting on Tuesday an operation near the town of Epizana.

A group of some 30 people from the neighbourhood mistook the officers in plainclothes for auto lifters and attacked them fatally. A civilian, who came to the rescue of the two, was also killed in the attack, authorities said.

A journalist who happened to be at the scene told a Cochabamba television station that the mob also assaulted him.

Last Wednesday, dozens of taxi drivers in the eastern province of Santa Cruz beat and set on fire two men they suspected of having killed one of their colleagues. One of the victims died while the other was grievously injured.